I've never owned a pair of Chucks, so I am uninitiated into their significance. Please enlighten me...
I, too, was traditional college age in the 80's, but I was totally into heels - you couldn't have caught me dead in lace-ups, much less *sneakers*! But I am paying the price - wearing 4 inch spike heels to do retail 40 hours a week has destroyed my arches & lower back. Now I love lace-up shoes, especially ones that go over the ankle.
Maybe I should get me some Chucks!
I too have never worn a pair of Converse sneakers, in large part because I need arch support in my shoes. Tell me: would it be a fairly simple thing to put arch supports (such as the kind one gets from a podiatrist) into Converse sneakers? So that one could be both cool and practical in one's shoe choices?
Assuming that my partner's career path of ordained ministry goes forward as she's hoping, she's planning on getting a pair of Converse sneakers in each liturgical color of the church year. So she would wear green sneakers in summer (during Ordinary Time), red sneakers at Pentecost, etc. The only problem would be the white sneakers during Christmas, which would break the no-white-shoes-after-Labor-Day rule; but church outweighs other fashion dictates!
When I first saw this entry, I thought it was about me (yes, I'm vain). I wear Chucks pretty much everyday I'm not teaching, but sadly my only current pair is fading fast. My choice? Denim blue.
I remember those big crinkly satin shirts from the early 80's well. I wore mine with a giganto v-shaped belt and leggings, little lace-up boots and an enormous watch. I never had chucks, though, regretfully. I also think it's wise never to underestimate the importance of Feet Attitude.
I've never had the hi-tops. I bought my first pair of Converse at the end of my first year of grad school. Everyone else in my cohort was taking the qualifying exam in Complex Analysis (a subject whose name has a very different connotation for non-math people, I'm sure. If calculus was Dr. Jekyll, this would be Mr. Hyde.). I knew my best strategy for passing was to not take it at the same time as the strongest students, so I went shopping instead.
I went to a preppy east coast school (I got to rent a parking place to Gigi Cabot of the Boston Cabots) in the early 90's; by then flannel was de rigeur for misfits.
Ohhhhh, the 80s...my formative decage (the teen years). I remember the big shirts over leggings, and the satin, and the miniskirts. I grew up in preppyland and was a conformist rather than a rebel, but neon and ruffles affected us all.
And I DEFINITELY remember those high-impact aerobics classes (one to the Billy Idol's "Mony Mony" especially).
Never wore the Converse hi-tops myself, but I did think they were cool (they were hard to find out in my preppyland).
I had a pair of converse hi-tops, but they just never seemed to be "me." My best friend in high school, however, had a pair of red ones that he wore constantly all the way through college. They were a mark of his identity.
Does it mean anything that he is now an investment banker, a senior VP at a bank in St. Louis?
I wonder if he still wears those red high-tops.
jwb
What Now: yes, you could easily fit arch supports into Converse -- you might have to go up a size is all -- if you go shopping with the arch supports you could try them out.
The hi-tops do give some ankle support (after all, people actually used to play basketball in these, before athletic shoe technology got oh-so-fancy) and there is some arch cushion in them. I actually don't think they are so terrible for your feet. They're completely flat-soled, though, which can be a factor depending on your pronation/arch/ankle etc.
Prof Dyke: I'd totally forgotten about those v-belts!
I'm getting all nostalgic and teary, reading this, and I wish I had my Chucks again. If I did, I'd have a pair of faded-to-grey black ones that were held together with duct tape and long laces around the tops and bottoms, frayed at all edges. and had shit written all over them. Looking back, it's really no wonder my conservative-is-too-liberal-a-word-for-it college tried to have me removed the first year -- I sure didn't match.
I only have one pair of chucks right now--one of my dearest graduate school friends used to say that she always knew it was summer, b/c I'd break out the red chuck taylors (I think they're more than 10 years old!!) Haven't worn them much this summer, for some reason. And they're a bit tight, b/c my feet never went back to their old size after pseudonymous kid was born. I need a new pair.
I'm seriously considering getting these: http://www.nosweatapparel.com/
mi...tegory_Code=NSS
Oh man, I'm getting the envy all over again...
I didn't have Chucks, but wanted them. They never fit me quite right. I'd try them on when I was visiting the BIG CITY but my mom would make me walk around, feel my foot in them, ask if I'd wear them every day no matter what and ... sigh ...
Maybe worth trying again???
Definitely treat yourself to a new pair.
Hmm... proof that blog content does slip into one's unconscious. Last night, I had a dream that was all about stomping around in a pair of Chucks. I'm hazy on other details of the plot, but the Chucks (bright red) were definitely central. I woke up amused and also terribly grateful that the horrifying spider-bite/coma story hadn't made it into my dreams as well. 
you mean bright leggings are out of style? damn.
i love this blog entry so much! chuckie t's are a part of who i was, who i am. those signals of which you speak were (are) so important.
i've loved chuckie t's for so many reasons over the years, but i love them most now for 2 reasons. They're ultra light weight, and they fit perfectly into the toe clips on my bike. oh, one other reason, if i wear them in downpours with polar fleece socks underneath, my feet stay dry.
what now, you should be able to put your arch supports in the hi tops. my friend puts big ole orthopedic foot supports in her kids little cute chucks.
prof bitch, those code pinks are cute, and sweat free, unlike contemporary chucky t's. i wish they would make them in black, maybe with a pink lining. and with a chuck taylor logo maybe?
The first 16 years we were together, Himself wore nothing but chucks unless a family member was getting married (friends had to just deal with the chucks -- and, to be fair, he did wear new ones for weddings).
But last year his feet went to hell. Even the $300 orthotics his doctor hooked him up with don't make the chucks comfortable. So now he wears one pair of New Balance sneakers and has a closet full of chucks (about 40 pairs, including ones with flames on 'em). It's been 14 months and he's still in mourning. I've promised to bury him in his favorite chucks, but apparently that's cold comfort.
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